1. Technical Field
The present invention relates in general to point-of-sale systems, and in particularly, to processing a negotiable instrument utilizing a point-of-sale system. Still more particularly, the present invention relates to a method and system for efficiently processing a negotiable instrument via a point-of-sale system during a sale transaction.
2. Description of the Related Art
Although there are established methods for processing checks, electronic check processing is rapidly becoming an attractive alternative to the traditional processing of paper checks. Traditionally, a check is received from a purchaser as tender at a point-of-sale. Then, the check must be processed by the retailer and physically sent through a paper check clearing network. The paper check clearing network processes the check by requesting funds from the purchaser""s account. The purchaser""s bank approves or denies the request depending on whether or not the purchaser""s account includes sufficient funds to complete the transaction. Finally, the check is physically returned to the purchaser. Traditional check processing methods are costly and time consuming, adding unwanted overhead to sometimes slim profit margins of the retail industry.
Numerous devices exist for processing checks electronically. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,164,528 discloses a system and method for effecting payments for point-of-sale purchases of goods and services paid from consumer funds secured in bank checking or depository accounts. Each sale or xe2x80x9ctransaction eventxe2x80x9d is an electronic and xe2x80x9cpaperlessxe2x80x9d event that eliminates the costly and time-intensive traditional check processing methods. The system utilizes a magnetic ink character recognition (MICR) reader and a point-of-sale terminal. The required customer information is read from the check, and a sales slip is printed, which includes the retail establishment information, amount of the transaction, and a section for the customer contact information. This contact information is manually completed by the customer at the point-of-sale. The customer signs the sales slip, authorizing the retail establishment to remove funds from the customer""s account.
Generally, this process takes a substantial amount of time, unlike a cash transaction or credit card transaction. This is particularly because the customer""s contact information has to be manually written. Other customer""s are made to wait in line until the customer information is completed written down, and often customers avoid check out lines when they see a customer ahead of them pull out their check books to pay for their purchases. The longer time to complete processing each customer also leads to inefficiency in the check out process and loss of dollars. One solution to this problem to involves the utilization of check imaging printers; however the image files are very large and require significant point-of-sale system memory.
Although the current ECC practice is practical and ultimately more efficient than standard check payment procedures, it still requires (1) a long time for each customer to complete a payment transaction and/or (2) implementing the ECC process, which requires significant expense in acquiring new, sophisticated ECC to transmit and store check images. For smaller retail establishments and chains that have only small profit margins, the cost of purchasing new check out system to support ECC is prohibitive. Likewise, with larger retailers, the cost is multiplied by the number of check out required to support the larger numbers of customers. Additionally, because a great majority of the retail checkout hardware utilized by large retailers are older machines coupled to aging computer networks, adoption of the system and method disclosed in the aforementioned U.S. patent would require retailers to halt business transactions for a lengthy period while newer machines and systems are installed and tested. Replacing all retail checkout hardware for a large retailer would therefore be time consuming and cost prohibitive. Furthermore, a check imaging system forces the retailer to change the entire account balancing and record retrieval process.
The present invention thus recognizes that it would be desirable to provide an efficient electronic check conversion system at a point-of-sale by which processing of a negotiable instrument such as a check is completed without manual input of customer contact information or other transaction information. A method and system by which overall time of an ECC transaction is reduced would be a welcomed improvement. The invention further realizes that it would be desirable to provide more efficient ECC processing without incurring significant hardware and system costs for established retailers. The invention further realizes that it would be desirable to provide more efficient ECC without having to change the retailer""s cash balancing and record retrieval processes. These and other benefits are provided by the invention described herein.
Disclosed is an improved system and method of electronic check processing at an existing point-of-sale system. The system utilized to implement the present invention includes at least one point-of-sale (POS) terminal, a verification system, and an electronic settlement network. The POS terminal includes a printer, MICR scanner, and optical scanner. When a customer presents a check to pay for a transaction at the POS, the checker runs the check through an MICR scanner, which captures the MICR information from the check. The MICR information is forwarded to the verification system for approval of the check for ECC. Once the check is approved for ECC, the purchaser""s contact information is scanned from the face of the check by the optical scanner, and the digitized contact information is utilized along with other information from the transaction to create an ECC Agreement slip, which is printed on the high speed receipt printer. The agreement slip includes a signature line for the purchaser to sign. Once the purchaser signs the agreement slip, he returns the slip to the checker. The slip is retained by the retailer and handled for cash balancing similarly to a charge card slip. The point-of-sale terminal automatically voids the negotiable instrument prior to the instrument being returned to the purchaser to complete the transaction.
The entire process is completed with a traditionally POS system with only the addition of an optical scanner. Use of the optical scanner to scan the contact information and create a digitized image, which is later reproduced in the agreement saves a significant amount of time in the processing of the check payment. Also, the digitized image file is used only by the printer and is discarded after the purchaser""s contact information is printed on the ECC Agreement slip. Thus, the requirement to transmit and store the digitized image file is eliminated.
The above as well as additional objects, features, and advantages of an illustrative embodiment will become apparent in the following detailed written description.